Everyone from Time magazine to SciDev.Net seems to be talking about inequality at the moment. [1] Thomas Piketty’s book about it is a best seller.[2] Recently, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz has also tackled the subject. [3]

Another Nobel laureate, Eric Maskin addressed the issue through a theoretical modelrecently, as SciDev.Net reported.His analysis augments economists’ theory of international tradeby focusing on international production as central to understanding today’s global economy. With the globalisation of production, moderately skilled workers in emerging economies get new employment opportunities and unskilled workers do not.Maskin’s remedy for this is education and training.

The theory is elegant but I am cautious about pinning down one solution, particularly on such a huge and controversial issue as inequality.

Education is certainly part of the answer. But half the world’s working population (around 1.5 billion people) are in subsistence agriculture or the informal sector —they are unlikely to get into skilled jobs anytime soon, even with increased education.

It’s also worth saying that education isn’t just about reducing inequality. Earlier this week (8 September), I attended a presentation in Finland on the latest Human Development Report (HDR) by Eva Jespersen, deputy director of the New York HDR Office. Stiglitz, in the report, points to the wider importance of education: “not just because it enables individuals to live up to their potential, not just because it leads to increases in productivity: it also enhances the ability of individuals to cope with shocks”. [4]

Last week (5-6 September), I joined some 350 development economists at a UN conference looking at the current evidence and new thinking on how to achieve economicequality. [5]

Roger Williamson

There weresome interesting insights. For example, International Monetary Fund analyst Andrew Berg questioned whether the assumed trade-off between growth and inequality is such an established fact. He also showed that more equal societies do seem to be able to sustain growth for longer. [6]

Research presented at the meeting from UNU-WIDER (the UN University’sWorld Institute for Development EconomicsResearch) shows that income inequality is fallingin Latin America due to economic growth and redistributive social policies by governments over the last 15 years, eroding long-established patterns of extreme inequality. [7]

Top and tail at the conference were Marcelo Côrtes Neri, Brazilian minister for strategic affairs, and former Finnish president, Tarja Halonen.There was a surprising overlap in the insights from politicians from countries that are 79th and 24thin the Human Development Index respectively. Neri reported that extreme poverty (defined as living on less than US$1.25 a day at 2005 prices) in Brazilhas decreased by 69 per cent from 2002-12, with half of the impact due to growth and half to redistributive policies.[8]

Both Neri and Halonen stressed the importance of employment and active policies for education, equality and social inclusion. Brazil (starting over the last 20 or so years) and Finland (for much longer) both realised thatpoverty should not be used as an excuse to avoid starting social programmes for the poor (including those for education) and policies aimed at greater equality and social inclusion. So my recipe for reducing inequality is economic growth, social provision (including education) and redistribution.

Roger Williamson is an independent consultant and visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. Previous positions include organising nearly 80 international policy conferences for the UK Foreign Office and being head of policy and campaigns at Christian Aid.